A River Parishes refinery is under heightened scrutiny from state regulators after it unlawfully discharged industrial waste containing arsenic, cadmium, chromium and other toxic heavy metals into public areas and waterways.

Atlantic Alumina, also known as Atalco, is facing dozens of environmental violations stemming from breaches that occurred last year in the giant levees of its waste containment lakes at its aluminum oxide refinery near Gramercy. The facility is the only one remaining in the United States that refines bauxite into aluminum oxide (alumina), a process that produces a caustic red slurry waste the company stores in several manmade lakes near the St. James-St. John the Baptist parish line.

In August, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality issued the company a “Notice of Potential Penalty” compliance order that detailed the violations state officials documented during a series of inspections that began over a year ago. Now, the company must also address a slate of new requirements LDEQ has tacked onto Atalco’s solid waste permit renewal application, records show.

Federal and state inspectors first noticed the pollution discharges from Atalco’s “red mud” waste containment lakes over a year ago, according to a 606-page LDEQ inspection report finalized in March. The report details how a slurry of corrosive waste cut erosion channels through the giant levees around the waste lakes and escaped into the public drainage system that flows to the Blind River Swamp of Lake Maurepas.

In June, an Illuminator investigation into thousands of pages of state and federal documents and interviews with scientists and area residents indicated that Atalco polluted public land and state waterways with toxic waste for months — never notifying the neighboring community.

Atalco has not responded to multiple requests for comment.

In an effort to prevent future incidents, LDEQ is now requiring Atalco to provide more detailed maps and engineering drawings of its drainage systems and the perimeter ditches they flow into surrounding the facility’s red mud lakes.

The agency also wants the company to provide an updated, more detailed plan to address levee erosion and leaks from the lakes. The plan must include more details on how Atalco inspects its levees daily, the training requirements for its inspection personnel, how leaks are documented and the company’s notification practices when leaks are discovered. It also must include a slope stability analysis, which is an engineering assessment of whether the levees were constructed at the most optimal angles to prevent erosion.

Atalco has not yet responded to LDEQ’s latest request for the additional information. The company received the request on Sept. 17 and has 60 days from that date to file a response.

In the meantime, Atalco is grappling with an LDEQ notice issued Aug. 22 that laid out violations stemming from last year’s levee breaches and subsequent waste pollution discharges that have occurred since then.

The notice recaps the incidents and regulatory violations described in the Illuminator’s initial reporting and a follow-up report about a repeat of the levee breaches this summer. LDEQ singled out Outfall 003, the public drainage ditch that flows into the Blind River Swamp.

“On or about May 29, 2025, inspectors from the Department observed four (4) erosion channels or breaches along the … levees near Outfall 003, where reddish-orange caustic material/liquor was seeping into the receiving ditch for Outfall 003,” the notice stated. “Additionally, the Department observed several of the receiving streams within the Blind River Swamp further downstream from the facility’s outfalls to be turbid, objectionable in color (reddish-orange), and have a caustic odor.”

The four breaches from May 29 are just some of the violations for which Atalco has been placed on notice. On the same day, LDEQ found an unauthorized discharge of “unknown origin” that formed a “stagnant red pool” within a marshy area past the facility’s outer fence. Then, on June 11, inspectors discovered another off-site discharge of pollution coming from the opposite side of Atalco’s property.

“The Department observed the discharge resulting from a break within the containment ditch levee near a hole in the facility’s fence,” the notice states.

Atalco has responded to LDEQ’s notice, indicating the company intends to comply with the agency’s orders and take corrective actions to address the violations.

“Respondent will develop a Red Mud Lakes Integrity and Operational Workplan,” Atalco wrote in its response. “Respondent will provide supplemental information to the Department, as additional details become available … Respondent has taken immediate correction actions to control discharges to waters of the state.”

The company attached more than two dozen photos to its response showing construction and repairs it has made to its levees and other areas of the facility.

The LDEQ notice states that Atalco could face up to $32,500 per violation for each day it goes unaddressed. The agency routinely includes such stipulations in its violation notices but almost never levies maximum penalties.

For instance, following a 2017 compliance inspection, LDEQ cited Atalco for 78 violations mostly related to the company’s air pollution permit and allowed the company to pay a fine of $75,000 without admitting to any wrongdoing.

For the latest violations against Atalco, LDEQ has invited the company to make a negotiated offer to settle the case. Attached to the agency’s notice was a form that Atalco can fill out and submit with a settlement offer for an amount the company thinks is fair. LDEQ does not have to accept the offer, however.

The agency did not respond to detailed questions the Illuminator submitted regarding its latest notices to Atalco.